Shuttle Cam.

Spent last Sunday doing some electrical work. I needed to move my second camera from the front of the vehicle (which I never really used) to the back for two reasons: first, when I have the tailgate down, the OEM camera is useless since it’s in the tailgate – meaning with the tailgate down, all I see is the ground. Second, when I’m going out to ride my mountain bike, the tailgate pad I use also covers the OEM camera rendering it useless.

I figured I could move the second camera from the front bumper to below the rear bumper, so that I can use my Kenwood head unit and switch cameras whenever the OEM camera was blocked or if the tailgate was open. Because of this I had to run a video cable and 2 more wires for camera power/ground.

So I spent Sunday afternoon removing the original 4-wire harness (which required dropping the spare tire for access), and I replaced it with a new 9-wire harness plus video cable. I ran the wires from inside the cab (using an access hole underneath the left-rear floor area), along the inside edge of the frame rail, and up to the area behind the rear left tail lamp. I reconnected the bed LED lights, the tailgate lock actuator, and now I had extra wires to use for the second camera. I still have 3 more wires available in case I add something else to the rear of the truck in the future, and I ran everything behind the tail lamp on purpose; in the future, if I ever add something else electrical in the back, I don’t have to drop the spare tire and crawl underneath the bed again! As for the camera itself, I mounted it to the receiver just to the side of the receiver opening, below the bumper:

So now whenever I have the tailgate pad on (when shuttling MTB, thus “Shuttle camera”) or if the tailgate itself is lowered, I still have a rear camera to use when backing up by simply hitting a switch on my Kenwood head unit to swap between OEM rear camera and the new “Shuttle” camera.